— Day 9 —

He Is Your Sanctification

Of Him (God) you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us
wisdom from God—and righteousness and
SANCTIFICATION and redemption.

1 Corinthians 1:30

‘‘Paul ... to the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints’’—this is how the chapter opens in which we are taught that Christ is our sanctification, our holiness. In the Old Testament, believers were called the righteous; in the New Testament they are called saints, holy ones sanctified in Christ Jesus. Holy is higher than righteous. Holiness in reference to God relates to His inmost being; righteousness has to do with God’s dealings with His creatures. In man, righteousness is but a stepping-stone to holiness. It is in holiness that man can approach the nature of God (Matthew 5:48; 1 Peter 1:16). In the Old Testament it was righteousness that was found, while holiness was only typified. In Jesus Christ, the Holy One, and in His people, His saints or holy ones, it is first realized.

As in Scripture, and in our text, so also in personal experience: Righteousness comes before holiness. When the believer first finds Christ as his righteousness, he has such joy in being righteous that he hardly considers the idea of holiness. But as he grows, the desire for holiness makes itself felt, and he wants to know what provision his God has made for supplying that need. A superficial acquaintance with God’s plan leads to the view that while justification is God’s work, by faith in Christ, sanctification is our work, to be performed under the influence of the gratitude we feel for the deliverance we have experienced, and by the aid of the Holy Spirit. But the sincere Christian soon finds how little gratitude can supply the power. When he thinks that more prayer will bring it, he finds that, indispensable as prayer is, it is not enough. Often the believer struggles hopelessly for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit, as He glorifies Christ again, and reveals Christ, our sanctification, to be appropriated by faith alone.

Christ is made sanctification to us by God. Holiness is the very nature of God, and that alone is holy which God takes possession of and fills with himself. God’s answer to the question ‘‘How could sinful man become holy?’’ is ‘‘Christ, the Holy One of God.’’ In Him, the One sanctified by the Father and sent into the world, God’s holiness was revealed in the flesh, incarnated and brought within reach of man. Jesus declares, ‘‘For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth’’ (John 17:19). There is no other way for us to become holy but by becoming partakers of the holiness of Christ. And there is no other way of this taking place than by our personal spiritual union with Him, so that through His Holy Spirit His holy life flows into us. ‘‘Of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us sanctification.’’ Abiding by faith in Christ our sanctification is the simple secret of a holy life. The measure of sanctification will depend on the measure of abiding in Him. As the soul learns to wholly abide in Christ, the promise is increasingly fulfilled: ‘‘May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely’’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

To illustrate this relationship between the measure of the abiding and the measure of sanctification experienced, let us consider the grafting of a tree, that instructive symbol of our union to Jesus. The illustration is suggested by the Savior’s words, ‘‘Make a tree good and its fruit will be good’’ (Matthew 12:33 NIV). Now I can graft a tree so that only a single branch bears good fruit, while many of the natural branches remain and bear their old fruit—a type of believer in whom a small part of the life is sanctified, but in whom, from ignorance or other reasons, the carnal life in many respects still has full reign.

I also can graft a tree so that every branch is cut off, and the whole tree becomes renewed to bear good fruit. Yet unless I watch over the tendency of the stems to give sprouts, they may again rise and grow strong, and, robbing the new graft of the strength it needs, make it weak. Such are Christians who, apparently powerfully converted, forsake all to follow Christ, and yet after a time, through carelessness, allow old habits to regain their power. As a result, their Christian life and fruit are weakened. But if I want a tree to be completely good, I take it when it is young, and, cutting the stem off right to the ground, I graft it just where it emerges from the soil. I watch over every bud that might arise from the old nature until the flow of sap from the old roots into the new stem is so complete that the old life has, as it were, been entirely conquered and covered by the new. Here I have a tree entirely renewed, an emblem of the Christian who has learned by entire consecration to surrender everything for Christ, and in wholehearted faith to abide in Him.

If, in this last case, the old tree were a reasonable being that could cooperate with the gardener, what would the gardener say to it? Something like this, probably: ‘‘Now yield yourself entirely to this new nature I have given you; repress every tendency of the old nature to give buds or sprouts. Let all your sap and all your life-powers rise up into this graft taken from the beautiful tree over there, which I have put on you; in this way, you will bring forth much fruit that is sweet to the taste.’’ And the reply of the tree to the gardener would be: ‘‘When you graft me, do not spare a single branch; let everything of the old self, even the smallest bud, be destroyed, that I may no longer live in my own, but in that other life that was cut off and brought and put upon me. That way I will be completely new and good.’’

Could you later ask the renewed tree, as it was bearing abundant fruit, what it could say of itself, its answer would be this: ‘‘In me, that is, in my roots, there dwells no good thing. I am always inclined toward evil; the sap I collect from the soil is corrupt in nature, and ready to show itself in bearing evil fruit. But just when the sap rises into the sunshine to ripen into fruit, the wise gardener covers me with a new life, through which my sap is purified, and all my powers are renewed to bear good fruit. All I have to do is abide in what I have received. He cares for the immediate repression and removal of every bud which the old nature would still like to put forth.’’

Christian, do not be afraid to claim God’s promises to make you holy. Don’t listen to the suggestion that the corruption of your old nature renders holiness an impossibility. In your flesh dwells no good thing, that is true, and that flesh, though crucified with Christ, is not yet dead, but it continually seeks to rise up and lead you to evil. But the Father is your Vinedresser. He has grafted the life of Christ onto your life. That holy life is stronger than your evil life; under the watchful care of the Vine-dresser, that new life can keep down the workings of the evil life within you. The evil nature is there, with its unchanged tendency to rise up and show itself. But the new nature is there too; the living Christ, your sanctification, is there, and through Him all your powers can be sanctified as they rise into life. And you will be able to bear fruit to the glory of the Father.

Now, if you would live a holy life, abide in Christ your sanctification. Look upon Him as the Holy One of God, made man that He might communicate to us the holiness of God. Listen when Scripture teaches that there is within you a new nature, a new man, created in Christ Jesus in righteousness and true holiness. Remember that this holy nature that is in you is especially made for living a holy life and performing all holy duties, as much as the old nature is suited for doing evil. Understand that this holy nature within you has its root and life in Christ in heaven, and can only grow and become strong as the interaction between it and its source is uninterrupted.

Above all, believe most confidently that Jesus Christ himself delights in maintaining that new nature within you, and giving to it His own strength and wisdom for its work. Let faith in this reality lead you daily to surrender all self-confidence, and confess the utter corruption of all there is in you by nature. Let it fill you with a quiet and assured confidence that you are well able to do what the Father expects of you as His child, under the covenant of His grace, because you have Christ strengthening you. Let it teach you to lay yourself and your services on the altar as spiritual sacrifices, holy and acceptable in His sight, a sweet-smelling fragrance. Do not look upon a life of holiness as a strain and an effort, but as the natural outgrowth of the life of Christ within you. Let a quiet, hopeful, gladsome faith assure you that all you need for a holy life will be given you out of the holiness of Jesus. Then you will understand and prove what it is to abide in Christ our sanctification.